Currently available delivery systems for intraocular therapeutics are generally limited to 1) drops, which carry issues of expense, inconvenience, patient noncompliance (by overuse, underuse, or inappropriate frequency of use) as well as difficulty for delivery of the medications by certain patients (especially those with arthritic conditions who cannot manipulate the vials properly); 2) injections; and 3) bulky intravitreal implants placed within the vitreous cavity of the eye, requiring incisions in the eye and delicate manipulations of the vitreous gel .
There is a need to provide an efficient technique and device for introducing a pharmaceutical agent into the eye, particularly for sustained release following a surgical procedure. In another aspect, there is a need to provide an effective and convenient mechanism to deliver antibiotics, anti-inflammatory, antiglaucomatous, or other pharmaceuticals to the intraocular environment for therapeutic and prophylactic purposes, particularly following cataract or clear lens removal surgeries.
In yet another aspect, there is a need for an implant having applied thereto one or a plurality of sustained release pharmaceutical agents in a manner such that over time the active ingredient of the pharmaceutical agent (or agents) becomes bioavailable within an eye.
The following items may be relevant to the present invention and are hereby incorporated by reference herein for all purposes: U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,853,224; 5,273,751; 5,375,611; 5,401,880; 5,569,463; 5,616,122; 5,624,704; 5,843,184; 5,876,438; 5,902,283; 6,162,487; and 6,322,592.